During its meeting Monday, Washington’s City Council, with a 5-0 vote, authorized the city manager to sign a lease between the city and Harry Meredith Jr. so he can use about 33 acres of city land along Springs Road near Washington-Warren Airport.

The city and Meredith signed a similar lease 10 years ago. The rent during that 10-year period was $130 for the first year and $10 a year for the remaining nine years. The new 10-year lease calls for rent during the first year to be $150 and $20 a year in each of the remaining nine years.

Meredith uses the land at the end of the airport’s runway 5 for the feeding, pasturing and grazing of farm animals. The current lease and the new lease require Meredith to maintain the property. They also require Meredith to not permit anything, including trees, to obstruct the runway-approach zone northwest of the airport. As does the current lease, the new lease prohibits any enterprise, including but no limited to commercial use or enterprise for profit, on the land. It also requires Meredith to not “make any unlawful or offensive use of the premises.”

The new lease takes effect Aug. 11.

In other business, the council awarded a nearly $32,000 contract to Garris Grading & Paving to pave Sarah Keyes Way in the Keys Landing subdivision. The city sought bids for the paving project from three paving contractors, but only Garris Grading & Paving submitted a bid. S.T. Wooten and Rose Brothers Paving did not submit bids.

Last fall, residents on Sarah Keyes Way began showing up at City Council meetings, asking for the street to be paved. Ravonda Ore attended several council meetings in a row, keeping a vow to attend such meetings until her and her neighbors’ concerns with the street were addressed by the city. Several people who live on the street complained about their street not being paved, resulting in damage to their vehicles.